Data-driven, conversion-centric ecommerce marketing strategy

“Business strategy” is a completely redundant term. Running a business is basically nothing but strategy. After all, your business is open 24/7 so you’d be better strategizing at least 23/6. At Brand Labs,we never stop. We’re conversion-hungry and have all the tools tosatisfy that need. We’ve got consultants, designers, search experts, marketing experts, analytics experts and years of experience withretail, wholesale and manufacturing clients.But enough about us. Let’s talk about you…and how we can help you.

Google Analytics

It goes without saying that the basis of any good strategy is a deep foundation of solid data. Without the numbers, you can’t measure your successes or learn from your failures. Far too much online marketing is planned around anecdotal evidence and instinct. Those things are important, but if your core plan isn’t data-driven, you’re just guessing and hoping.

Data-driven-marketing is ourmiddle name…

We like the security that comes with numbers. They’re stable. You need that stability because the other elements of marketing strategy are entirely creative. Creativity is hard to measure, but its impact on your bottom line can be tracked quite handily. Combine our years of experience, our Google Analytics certification, our Google Adwords certification and our great big brains, and you get an unstoppable ecommerce juggernaut, the likes of which the world has never seen! (Please note that we never counted humility among our assets.)

“Google Analytics is obviously a critical ecommerce tracking tool, but in the right hands it’s also an incredibly powerful sales tool.”

Dane DownerBrand LabsVP/Director of Professional Services

Conversion Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can only take you so far. Once you’ve attracted traffic to your Volusion store, you’ll probably want them to spend some money. That’s when our strategic focus shifts from SEO to Conversion Optimization.

It’s all about the checkout…

We’ve mentioned data-driven design and data-driven marketing elsewhere on the site, but if anything were worthy of the term “data driven” it would be our conversion optimization programs. We design all of our custom Volusion templates based on our vast experience and the historical performance of hundreds of Volusion stores, but knowledge of the past can only carry you so far. Through structured programs of multivariate and A/B testing, we hone our clients’ sites until they become unstoppable conversion machines.

“Conversion Optimization’ is just a fancy way of saying that we design ecommerce sites that look really good while they’re selling a lot of product.”

Pauline TurnerBrand LabsCreative Director

A/B & Multivariate Testing

Everybody loves having a choice, but in ecommerce marketing, variety isn’t just desirable, it’s critical.

This one or that one…

Google Analytics, consumer testing and UI heatmapping can tell you how your Volusion store is doing, but without A/B and Multivariate Testing, you’ll never know how it could be doing. Testing well-designed, content-rich options against each other allows us to refine our custom Volusion templates using the best available information. A good portion of any marketing effort involves educated guesswork; A/B testing eliminates that guesswork in favor of good, solid facts. Don’t get us wrong. We’re quite proud of our marketing expertise, but we’re not so proud that we’re afraid to put our skills to the test. Like grandma used to say, “Multivariate testing makes perfect.” (Grandma was very progressive.)

“Even with years of experience, the best way to maximize conversions is to test and test and test. Good data makes for good decisions.”

Jackie McClellandBrand LabsDirector of Ecommerce Marketing

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but we prefer another way to describe the effort: Doing Everything Right.

Do everything right… and often…

You want your Volusion store to be findable. Your first step is to ensure that all of your copy is well-written and filled with searchable terms that relate to your business – like the way we said “Volusion store” instead of just “store” right there. Of course, if it were that easy, you could just write your keywords over and over again. Trust us. It is not that easy. You’ll need to dive deeper. Metadata, image tags, even the arrangement of the elements on a page – it all matters. As Volusion experts, we know all the ins and outs of Volusion and we can make Volusion work for you. (We never said that keywords weren’t important. Volusion.)

“Search Engine Optimization is a mysterious and complicated process. The only way to master it is to do it all the time. We do it all the time.”

Kevin HarmanBrand LabsPresident

Pay Per Click

Paid search is a two-headed beast. The first head is all fluffy and adorable and it wants to make sure that your Volusion store appears in search engines even when your organic ranking fails you. The second head is an evil, heartless, unrelenting, slobbering monster that totally pretends to be your friend while it viciously bleeds your business dry.

Conversions, not clicks… duh…

We’re Google Analytics and Google AdWords Certified, so we know how to read your data and we know what to do with it. We also know that it’s really easy to get wrapped up in attracting traffic, as opposed to targeting conversions. Of course you know that, too, but our skills don’t end with spouting off tired, old platitudes as part of a sales pitch. We have in-house experts (Google certified, as we mentioned) who are eager to flex their expertise for your Volusion site. We can help you tame the PPC beast, housebreak it and make it fetch your slippers.

Affiliate Marketing

Whether you’re a small Volusion retailer or a large, established brand, the fact is that you can never have enough people on your team. If you’re a one-person operation, the need is obvious, but even if you’ve got a giant, nationwide staff, you can’t be everywhere all the time.

Everybody should roll with a posse…

Affiliate marketing is like having a sales force that’s working around the clock – on spec. That’s what’s great about it. You only pay when it works, so your virtual staff is motivated to see to it that it does. Everyone’s on the same page; the let’s-make-money-for-you page. Of course, you have to assemble that virtual sales force, and then you have to negotiate individual agreements, manage those agreements, track conversions and payments, resolve disputes, provide content… that’s a lot to take on while you’re busy actually running your business, but that’s no good reason not to do it, especially when our staff of experts is ready to do it for you.

“It’s pretty simple math – the more people you have selling for you, the greater overall potential you have for conversions. Don’t limit your potential.”

Dane DownerBrand LabsVP/Director of Professional Services

Comparison Shopping & Coupon Sites

There was a brief window in recent Internet history when comparison shopping engines (CSE) were a pretty critical part of any Volusion retail marketing strategy. The meteoric rise of coupon sites (and social media alternatives) definitely put a dent in the overall importance of CSEs, but they remain a solid bet for a lot of online retailers. The trick is knowing if your business falls into that group or if you’re better off looking elsewhere for your customers.

Can’t we all just get along?

There are definitely two sides to the CSE vs. coupon debate, and luckily for you we’re well-versed in both of them and we remain impartial. Like all of our strategic decisions, we bring our knowledge and experience to the table, but we make our choices based on data. We know what to look for when you’re deciding where you should put your marketing resources. We can guide you to the choice that’s right for you – which may be none of the above. See? Impartial.

“Shoppers want deals and they’re looking for them anywhere they can find them. The point is to be found.”

Jackie McClellandBrand LabsDirector of Ecommerce Marketing

Volusion Store Merchandising

Merchandising is the lonely, forgotten child of the ecommerce strategy family. Far too many Volusion merchants neglect this critical part of the process. They either believe that it’s a simple matter to do it well or that it simply doesn’t matter how well you do it. Neither is true.

Stock your store with data…

There we go again – spouting off about data. We can’t help it. When it comes right down to it, good ecommerce is about the effective exchange of data. You need to give your customers as much accurate, compelling data as you possibly can. You also have to give a whole different set of data to the search engines that are crawling your site. Fail on either one of these counts and you’re playing at a disadvantage before the game even begins. Our merchandising team has expert knowledge of Volusion and they know how to use the platform to your advantage. Good merchandising is the first step of your marketing campaign. Make it count.

“Good merchandising can make the difference between looking and finding – between browsing and buying.”